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Saturday, April 30, 2011

I would like to make a toast to second chances! I bought this polish a few months ago and when I first swatched it, I was not a fan. Don't know why, but I decided to reswatch it for this blog. Well let me tell you, I changed my mind. I ended up wearing this as a full manicure. It is a soft milky gray. So pretty! The color actually came out a bit darker than the bottle color. This is three coats + a top coat.

What do you think?
I just wish there was more than 0.25 oz of it :)
I'm assuming because of small bottles size, but there are no ingredients listed on it. I'm confused as I thought this was required to be listed at least on the outer packaging (which it had none)... anyone know if these are B3F?

Friday, April 29, 2011

This is a muted pink/lilac with a gray undertone. It has a hint of purple shimmer in the bottle which I was really hoping to see on the nail, but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. It does not show up on the nail, except for maybe in direct sunlight. Since it has been raining here for days now, I have yet to test that theory.

I did catch a moment when it stopped raining, but it was still too overcast and not sunny enough to see the shimmer. :(

outdoors (overcast)

Do you see the shimmer in the bottle? Look close...

Here it is briefly making an appearance on the nail...

Brand: Sally Hansen Collection: Hard as NailsColor Name/Number: Lilac

I applied 3 coats to get it fully opaque then added a top coat for shine.
I really liked the color over all. It looks very clean and professional. The application was good.
My bf even commented that he really likes the way it looks and asked if I would pretty please not take this one off. How could I say no to that? We'll see how long I manage to keep this on before my fingers start itching to try something new. :)

Thursday, April 28, 2011

I saw this tutorial from from Confessions of a Polishaholic. For some reason I just had to try it. The tutorial recommends using a light color as a base, but I already had the Wet n Wild Caught Red Handed on... Plus, I thought that black print on a red polish would actually look good. So I gave it a try.

Sadly none of the print actually transferred, but what I end up with was a matte nail. I tried it on a few other nails with the same result. I choose to blame my flop on the topcoat. I will definitely have to try this technique without the top coat on and see if the text actually transfers. :)

This is by no means the most obvious matte effect. It just caught me by surprise, so I thought I'd share. I have yet to try the matte topcoats that are available, but from swatches I have seen they produce a much stronger effect.

If you want a slight matte effect and want to try this, here is what I did:
1. Cut out squares out of the newspaper that are slightly bigger than the nail.
2. Fill a small container with rubbing alcohol (the tutorial recommends vodka or spirit, but who wants to waste that???)
3. Soak nails for a few minutes in rubbing alcohol until they are nice and wet. Apply the newspaper squares to the nail and hold for at least 30 seconds
5. Remove the newspaper and there you have it... matte nails
6. If you were lucky enough to get some of the print to stick, but didn't want it, you can just rub it off.

Some questions to ponder and things to try... if one was to use colorful tissue paper, would the color transfer? Could one crinkle it and make some cool effects? Could one print images from the computer and transfer them to the nail? Hmmm...

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

It must have been the gloomy and rainy weather outside that made me want to try this bright red to cheer me up. It is not what I would normally wear, but it was exactly what I needed. It makes me think of a nice pair of red patent leather heels, but since I can't wear those to work, this will have to do :)

This was three coats plus a top coat. The nail line was still visible as this is a pretty transparent color. The visible nail line doesn't bother me much and out of principle I generally won't do more than three coats. My only complaint about this polish is that the brush was crooked and uneven making it difficult to apply a clean line near the cuticles.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I love these light colors. They usually look great with my skin tone. I have tried a few that I wasn't a fan off, but these four have been my go to colors when I need something quick and clean looking. I did a swatch of NYC Nail Glossies 215 yesterday, so I thought I would do a quick comparison to my other light colors.

The colors are as follows:
Index: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Sheer Vanilla
Middle: Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Sheer Ivory
Ring: N.Y.C. Nail Glossies 215 (wish they would name it)
Pinkie: No brand "French Pink" that came in a gift set someone gave me :)

I did three coats of each polish, except for the French Pink which was four coats. Even with the four coats though, it was the lightest of the bunch, with the most visible nail line. Non of them completely covered the nail line, however, as they are all pretty sheer. No complaints on application for any of them. NYC had the best brush in my humble opinion, just a tad wider than the rest and slightly flattened.

Both of the SH colors were nice and creamy. Sheer Vanilla is just a bit off white, giving it a nice soft look. Sheer Ivory is more toward beige. Had it been any more yellow, it wouldn't be a keeper for me. NYC is very similar to Sheer Vanilla except that it has a very subtle micro shimmer. French Pink is very, very light as evident by the number of coats it took. However, it is probably my 1st choice when doing a traditional french mani. It is just enough to soften the stark white without covering it completely.

My favorite for everyday wear is definitely NYC. I just love the shimmer when the sun hits it... here is hoping for more sunny days in Seattle :)

Monday, April 25, 2011

NYC Nail Glossies 215 is a nice off white with just a hint of pink. I did three coats + a top coat and it is still fairly sheer with a visible nail line. When the sun catches it at the right angle it also has a very pretty micro shimmer that just didn't want to be photographed. It must be my luck since whenever I put on a color like this, the sunshine dissapears. Maybe it is is one of those "as soon as I wash my car, it will rain" things... Or maybe it is just a living in the Pacific Northwest type of thing :)

I tried my best to catch the shimmer and this is my best shot :)
You can click on the photo to zoom in.

Since the name claims it to be silver, I decided to compare it to the silver from Cover Girl that I swatched yesterday. While they are both shiny and metallic, you can definitely see the taupe undertones of the Sally Hansen polish, while the Cover Girl one is just silver on top of silver.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

This color is a nice silver polish. It applied pretty easily and required 3 thin coats for full coverage without a visible nail line. The bottle claims the polish has a "built in topcoat", but I still added a top coat to make it extra super duper shiny :)
With this one, you have to be pretty careful with the application so it doesn't get streaky...

This is one of my oldies, so I'm not sure if it is still available in stores...

The color is an almost perfect match for the satin nickel door knobs I have in my house... :)

Friday, April 22, 2011

I decided to celebrate earth day my own way. Instead of just doing a mani with a color that I already had, I made my own using an eyeshadow. I got it a while back, but didn't love the color on me. It is pretty, but waaay too green for my eyes. I'm sure someone out there can pull it off, but not me!

I had heard about using eyeshadows as pigments in nail polish, but never got around to trying it. The "to try" list (swirling around in my head) is just too long. So, this was my 1st attempt at making a nail polish this way and I was super excited that it turned out so well... can you imagine this color on my eyes? Yikes! :)

The color came out better than I expected. A really pretty olive green with lots of little shimmer and sparkle. I may have to save this one for next St. Patty's Day.
This was 3 coats + a top coat to get it even and with no visible nail line.

It is super easy to make too! All you need is some eye shadow and clear nail polish.
Take any eyeshadow that you would like to use and gently scrape off the top so you get a fine powder (do this on a piece of paper that you can fold and use as a funnel).
For this polish I used a Jane Eye Zing eyeshadow in Sage.

When you have the powder on your piece of paper, fold the paper to make a funnel and carefully transfer the powder into a bottle with clear nail polish.
After you have transferred the powder, all you do is shake shake shake your booty the bottle until it is evenly distributed. It helps to have a few of those little metal balls in the bottle. I use 4.5mm BBs :)

Don't ask me how much powder to put it. I have no idea :) Plus, it depends on how much clear polish you are using/how much polish you want to make. I just kept adding until the color seemed saturated. If you add too much it could get thick and unusable. In that case just add some polish thinner and it should be fine. Just don't add any nail polish remover or acetone... it will be totally ruined...

What an awesome way to use up that old eyeshadow, right? Perfect for Earth Day!
And the possibilities are endless! I'm still thinking of all that shadow I have lying around, not being used. Ahh... must resist making more polish until I swatch what I already have... :)

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Trying to figure out the 1st color to swatch was for some reason more difficult than anticipated. I stared at the blank slate (my nakey nails) before deciding. I finally settled on white. It is so fresh and pure, just like this blog :)

Usually my white polishes are reserved for french tips and color mixing, but what the heck, I decided to do a full nail swatch. It just seemed fitting.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Wondering what Wacky Laki means? Laki (spelled using the English alphabet) means "nail polish" in Russian, where I was born. Wacky is because I happen to be pretty wacky, so the blog is sure to follow. Plus, there is just something about saying "Wacky Laki" fast that makes me giggle. So, thanks to my (also wacky) bf who came up with the name, it stuck :)

Lately, I have have been obsessed with thinking about swatching my growing collection of nail polishes. I blame this on a few very inspiring nail polish blogs that I have been following (I will name names later). I figured that I love nail polish as much as the next girl... I mean it is pretty hard not to love, right? It can look professional, sweet, sexy, wild, vampy and anything in between. You can add designs, crystals, water marble, etc, etc, etc... You can even mix different colors together to make your very own combination! How awesome is that? I mean seriously, who doesn’t love nail polish?

But to be honest, my desire to start this blog is for three reasons… to swatch my collection, to document any combos I happen to conjure up, and last but not least is to take better care of my nails. Boring! If they will be posing here, they better be in good shape :)

About Me

I am a self proclaimed craft nerd. I love all things crafty and will try just about any of it. Favorite hobbies include carving candles, decorating cakes, and making jewelry. In my free time, I love to play with nail polish! Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at angalek@gmail.com